Ideas needed for planting a sloped area

IPanoptic

Hi, I'm looking for ideas for planting an area on the a sloped side of a raised percolation area. It's currently in grass, but can be strimmed. The maintainance of it taking me away from other things I could be doing. Does anyone have any suggestions as the what I could plant for ground cover? I don't really want to remove the grass, so something that would beat the grass into submission would be great

PeteFalk78

Depends really if you want a bit of colour? There are lots to chose from.

Personally I'd go for dogwoods (for a small bit of height) and dog roses (to suppress weeds) or my personal favourite Lonicera nitida.

It all depends on the area and surroundings.....a nice shrub in the wrong area can look awful. Post a pic.

IPanoptic

Thanks Peterfalk78. It's not really what I'm after. I was thinking of Lady's Mantle or Vinca Minor, but am unsure how well they'd do in grass. Most of the raise percolation area can be cut, but this side is almost sheer, so strimming the grass is my only option at the moment.

PeteFalk78

You want to keep the grass to keep the soil "together" until the ground cover plant takes over?

IPanoptic

PeteFalk78 wrote: »

You want to keep the grass to keep the soil "together" until the ground cover plant takes over?

Yeah. Less work really. The soil would definitely run off with the rain, but I'd like to "suppress" the grass so I don't have to touch it. I can get almost everywhere else I need to with a mower, but this area is really difficult to manage. There's a hedge behind it about 6 feet away. The hedge I can keep trimmed and the grass in between I can get with a mower. I'd like to keep the view of the hedge so my idea was to plant this area of the raised percolation bed with planting that isnt to high. Sorry if that's as clear as mud..

jessei

try some of the ground covering cotoneasters, slow growers though..but look nice

my3cents

Only really good ground cover I can think of that might do it without removing the grass is rubus tricolor.

You could add a few other plants for height.

IPanoptic

Sorry folks, got busy with other stuff. Rubus Tricolour-Creeping Bramble. Don't really fancy that sorry to say. Are there any other ideas floating about to deal with this kinda thing? Plant, coverings, stone, dynamite - all of the above?

iPANOPTIC

looksee

How about a dwarf hypericum (John's Wort) http://www.vanmeuwen.com/trees-shrubs-and-ornamentals/shrubs/hypercium-daffodil-shrub/V13653VM That link is just for the pic, no idea about the company. Hypericum is easy enough to get though.

Sonnenblumen

A mixed planting of spring & summer flowering heathers would be an obvious colourful, low maintenance choice. Or a mixed planted of evergreen grasses (Carex).

For a more even low growing but tidy green finish, Pachysandra terminalis 'green carpet'. If it is a semi-shaded area, Heuchera (many varieties to choose from) would also make a distinctive planting scheme.

Speed of development and budget are two important criteria which will influence final choice, but if possible, look beyond the obvious criteria.

IPanoptic

Back again for more. I've landed on the idea that a ground cover rose may fit the bill. I was thinking either Pheasant or Grouse Kordes roses..what are the thoughts? I'd rather have to clip a rose than strim/weed or cut the grass.

Roselm

IPanoptic wrote: »

Back again for more. I've landed on the idea that a ground cover rose may fit the bill. I was thinking either Pheasant or Grouse Kordes roses..what are the thoughts? I'd rather have to clip a rose than strim/weed or cut the grass.

Are they and do you need them to be evergreen?

IPanoptic

It's not really essential that they stay evergreen Rose, really only that they suppress the grass and the weeds.

I've read that either Grouse or Pheasant can be bullies, but I'm not going to be planting anything else. My only little niggle is thorns.

darrenheaphy

Take a look at what we did with a slope at ours. Basically we dug some lines into which we slid some rocks, around which now is a selection of mostly alpines and perennials and other random things.

IPanoptic

darrenheaphy wrote: »

Take a look at what we did with a slope at ours. Basically we dug some lines into which we slid some rocks, around which now is a selection of mostly alpines and perennials and other random things.

That's sweet. Our raised percolation area is in the middle of the garden, so it's an eyesore no matter which way you look at it. We had to get it repaired a few years ago so I can cut the grass on most of it, but the back and one side are very steep still. I like the idea though.

darrenheaphy

IPanoptic wrote: »

That's sweet. Our raised percolation area is in the middle of the garden, so it's an eyesore no matter which way you look at it. We had to get it repaired a few years ago so I can cut the grass on most of it, but the back and one side are very steep still. I like the idea though.

You're welcome. We put photinia (red robin) around our percolation area (there's 3 inspection chambers) there. So it's literally a rectangular patch of photinia, in hindsight I should have landscaped it better but it's good enough

_Brian

darrenheaphy wrote: »

Take a look at what we did with a slope at ours. Basically we dug some lines into which we slid some rocks, around which now is a selection of mostly alpines and perennials and other random things.

wow, that looks great,

ermmm, I just have to ask about the "chap" in the background in pic 3
please tell me he's not your neighbor !

darrenheaphy

_Brian wrote: »

wow, that looks great,

ermmm, I just have to ask about the "chap" in the background in pic 3
please tell me he's not your neighbor !

Hehe :-D He's my father in law, helping cut back a ditch. We're thinking of putting big shrubs and trees up there to create more of a boundary between us and the now cut down woods!